Sunday Science – The Solar System

The solar system has been a fun topic in our household. We haven’t done a lot of formal lessons about it, but we’ve ended up reading, playing and watching enough about it that Tornado Boy actually knows a lot more about it than I realized. Here are some fun resources for teaching your little one about the solar system:

If you have Verizon FIOS TV, you’re in for a real treat. Their “Kids Unlimited” OnDemand section contains a lot of great content including many Scholastic books in video format. Stars! Stars! Stars! is currently available to watch as part of the package. I’ve posted a preview of the video above.

Stars, Stars, Stars! – the video was so wonderful that we bought a used copy of the book that it was based on when we discovered that our library didn’t have it. You can check to see if you library has it here.

The video is a great kid-friendly look at the solar system. It covers the planets, sun, stars, some constellations, meteors, etc. Since it pre-dates the 2006 status change, Pluto is still shown as a planet. The Scholastic site offers some lesson ideas to accompany the video here. They’re intended to be used in a classroom, but they can be adapted for home use.

Our next piece of fun with the solar system is an audio tour, courtesy of the group They Might Be Giants. We listen to the CD “Here Comes Science” in the car a lot. The Planets is one of our favorite songs. They’re kind enough to have podcasted the videos for most of the songs, so here’s the video of the song from YouTube:

Interestingly enough, the video on the Science CD has a little bit before it about the downgrading of Pluto that’s not included on the YouTube clip.

If puzzles are more your thing, Melissa and Doug has a great planetary floor puzzle:

This puzzle gets a lot of playtime as a “reward” between lessons in our classroom.

If your little one is into pencil puzzles, abc teach has tons of solar system activities – some are free, some require a membership. Tornado Boy has been enjoying word search puzzles lately. If your little one has a hard time drawing circles around the letters, try letting them use a highlighter to draw over the letters instead. You can download a rocket shaped word search puzzle here.

Tornado Boy also has his meals on this placemat from time to time:

We got our Placemat at a local teaching store. I bought it about a year ago thinking it would be a great lesson for TB. He shocked me by reading the names across the top without hesitation and telling me that Earth was the third planet from the sun. I asked him how he knew that and he told me that it was from his “Wall-E” Leapster Game. I was very glad to know that the little gadget that buys me some “me time” every now and again really does teach him!

For more fun science lessons and activities, check out Ticia’s Science Sunday post at Adventures in Mommydom!